{"id":14676,"date":"2019-09-04T08:55:58","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T12:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=14676"},"modified":"2020-09-03T14:35:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T18:35:28","slug":"defense-bonus-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/04\/defense-bonus-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of the Bonus Baby"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know more than a few families that ended up with more kids than was planned or expected. That found themselves with just one more baby when they didn’t really see it coming. A lot of times these are moving babies, exotic vacation babies, and winter holiday babies.<\/p>\n

But what I’ve never heard of is a family that wishes they could go back and be more mindful. I’ve never met a family that wishes they could get a “do over” and try life without their last child. Because, while unexpected, it seems that many times those\u00a0late comers are exactly what makes a family complete.<\/p>\n

Today, our “bonus baby”, Pipsqueak, turns 4 and while his being has by far been the biggest struggle our family has ever faced, I’m really glad he’s here to be a part of it.<\/p>\n

He loves trucks and cars of all kinds. He wants to be a firetrain driver when he gets big. Or maybe a police, with two cars. And he really wants to drive a racecar, when he’s big enough.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He is silly and has an infectious laugh.<\/p>\n

He is free-spirited and wild at times.<\/p>\n

He is strong-willed and opinionated.<\/p>\n

He is a bundle of ceaseless energy and never stops. Ever.<\/p>\n

He will try anything and never gives up. He has determination of steel and goes through life without any regard for what other people think (including me!)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He is rough-and-tumble boy throughout but adores his big sisters. He doesn’t mind a pony in his hair and won’t\u00a0shy away from pink-sparkly-anything.<\/p>\n

He has an imagination for make-believe and creation that outstretches anything my prior 4 year olds could have dreamed of (and sometimes even beyond his current 11 year old sister!)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

His theme song has always been “Wrecking Ball”<\/a>\u00a0because he has a way of walking through this world destroying things. But I also know it means he’ll take down any obstacle that stands in his way.<\/p>\n

He wants to be like his big sisters and brother (and often keeps up). Yet, he is still our little baby and somehow helpless in ways beyond any 4 year old we’ve had before.<\/p>\n

Life with Pipsqueak has been a blur. The past 4 years have flown by as we navigate as a family of 6 and try our best to figure out how to manage 4 vastly different kids.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Can I imagine life without him? Yep, I sure can. It would be a lot quieter and my arms wouldn’t be so tired at the end of the day. There would be less screaming and arguing and maybe I’d have a bit more patience. But my heart would also\u00a0be a lot less full.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know more than a few families that ended up with more kids than was planned or expected. That found themselves with just one more baby when they didn’t really see it coming. A lot of times these are moving babies, exotic vacation babies, and winter holiday babies. But what I’ve never heard of is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[631,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birthday-posts","category-time-to-celebrate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14681,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14676\/revisions\/14681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}